Today in History

Today is Sunday, July 14, the 195th day of 2013. There are 170 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 14, 1913, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., the 38th president of the United States, was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Neb.

On this date:

In 1789, during the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry relayed to Japanese officials a letter from President Millard Fillmore requesting trade relations. (Fillmore’s term of office had already expired by the time the letter was delivered.)

In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

In 1911, Harry N. Atwood became the first pilot to land an airplane (a Wright Model B biplane) on the grounds of the White House after flying in from Boston; he was greeted by President William Howard Taft.

In 1921, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham, Mass., of murdering a shoe company paymaster and his guard. (Sacco and Vanzetti were executed six years later.)

In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed. Cartoon character Popeye the Sailor made his movie debut in the Fleischer Studios animated short, “Popeye the Sailor.”

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure providing funds for a national monument honoring scientist George Washington Carver; the monument was built at Carver’s birthplace near Diamond, Mo.

In 1960, British researcher Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe (GAHM’-bay) Stream Reserve in the Tanganyika Territory (in present-day Tanzania) to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.

In 1966, eight student nurses were murdered by Richard Speck in a Chicago dormitory.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in New York.